“We play some golf together,” the superstar singer, songwriter, actor and anything else Timberlake superstars at said of Brady, the Patriots superstar quarterback, at a largely attended news conference on Thursday. “That’s one thing I’ve enjoyed doing a lot.

“Any time you get to share time like that away from everything with somebody I think you have a lot of true respect and admiration for, at how seriously he takes his craft and how great he is at it …. we’re very liked-minded people and so it’s nice to be around somebody like that, and not just hang with him but also pick the brain of what makes him so great.

“Take a little bit of the Brady sauce. You guys can coin that phrase.”

It’s also clear that Timberlake, who will perform at halftime of the Super Bowl for a record third time, doesn’t want his kid to play football – which felt like kind of an odd thing to admit then and there.

Especially after Timberlake joked that he would be available to fill-in at receiver if the Pats ran into any more injury problems at the position.

Now Silas, the son of Timberlake and Jessica Biel, is only two years old, but when asked if he’d ever like to see his boy run routes in the NFL, Timberlake was emphatic.

“Uh, he will never play football,” he said. “No, no.”

Then he relented.

“I mean, yeah, it’s kind of like that thing where my main objective is that he become a great person,” said Timberlake. “And if he wants to get into the arts or sports, then yeah, I would fully support that. I think I can hopefully offer him some advice on what to do and what not to do, so yeah, but right now we’re working on ou manners. That’s a big deal in our house right now. It’s like one thing at at time.”

Pretty much his only other serious notes were in talking about the late Prince, a Minnesota product who was Timberlake’s idol.

“Greatest all-round musician I can think of in popular culture,” said Timberlake, who added it was a “bucket list” thing for him to have a”listening party” for his new album at Paisley Park, which he called the “hallowed sacred ground” that is Prince’s estate.

He also sounded pretty excited to be performing at U.S. Bank Stadium midway through the Patriots-Eagles game.

When a female reporter asked Timberlake what his inspiration was to put together a half-time show, he replied: “So I got this phone call, right? And they were like, ‘Would you come and do the half time show?’ And I was like, yeah. That was it.”

Back to Brady.

Apparently, an entertainment reporter asked Tom earlier this week if he had a “man-crush” on anyone.

“I heard I made the list,” Timberlake said, knowing where she was going, “although I was a little jealous I was so far behind (Julian) Edelman, (Danny) Amendola and (Rob) Gronkowski.”

How does it affect your “bromance” with Jimmy Fallon?

“I think all of you know I’m telling the truth when I say nothing could ever come between Jimmy and I,” said Timberlake.

Back to Brady.

“I actually texted Tom before the conference championship game and I said, ‘I’m going to the Super Bowl, are you going to the Super Bowl?’ … just to get him fired up,” said Timberlake. “Tom is great. He’s the greatest of all time. Officially. So Tom is definitely the type of dude you’d invite over to watch the Super Bowl. The problem is he’s always in the Super Bowl.”

Timberlake said the verdict is still out on Brady’s dance moves, however.

“He has great hair though. I mean great hair,” he said, pushing to get Brady a shampoo commercial.

By the sounds of it, Timberlake isn’t going to have a special guest during the half time show (although also by the sounds of it, there was a thought to bringing Janet Jackson in for another whirl). Justin Dungy, the 11-year old son of analyst Tony Dungy, asked if he was going to hold true to his vow to get 73-year old play by play man Al Michaels shaking his booty.

“If I can get Al to dance I think that would be a huge personal accomplishment,” laughed Timberlake.

Another member of the entertainment media preempted his questions by leading a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for Timberlake, who turned 36 on Wednesday.

When the song was over, Timberlake said to him: “You get a little nervous when somebody’s watching you sing, huh? Try 130 million people.”

A female Boston reporter tried to find out Timberlake’s rooting interests on Sunday, after she got him to admit, “I love Tom Brady.”

So that means you’re cheering for the Patriots?

“I have to go on tour in Philadelphia, woman. What are you doing to me?,” said Timberlake, before adding. “Go Pack Go.”

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